It’s Shakespeare’s birthday month and our theater partners across the United States are offering lots of opportunities to celebrate Shakespeare and theater. Check out what’s playing this month. What do you hope to see?
At the Folger
We’re celebrating WS’s birthday this year on April 19, beginning with our Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration. Doors open at 11am for visitors to explore the exhibition halls, theater, and Reading Room, with docents on hand to answer questions. Printing press demonstrations take place in the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall from 11:30am–1pm and 2–3:30pm. Ruff-making, lawn games, face painting, coloring, and a sonnet-writing competition begin outside at 1pm, along with a Twelfth Night puppet show, Elizabethan dancing, and sword-fighting demonstration! We’ll sing “Happy Birthday” to Shakespeare around 2:45pm with birthday cupcakes for all. At 7pm, it’s the annual Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture, this year featuring Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper speaking on “Shakespeare Beyond Relevance.” On April 24, our Folger Salon is featuring a discussion of research at the Folger with scholars Douglas Clark, Jamie Gemell, and Patricia Matthew. The 2025 Folger Gala on April 26 takes its inspiration from Shakespeare in America and a uniquely American art form, jazz, for a night of great music and entertainment highlighting the vibrant artistic movement that was the Harlem Renaissance. We end the month with our Early Music Seminar with Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein for the upcoming Folger Consort performance of Kings and Commonwealth. Our special exhibition, How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition, is on view in the Rose Exhibition Hall all month.
Alabama Shakespeare Festival
When Prince Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, suddenly dies, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, marries his uncle Claudius, who becomes the new king. A spirit claiming to be the ghost of Hamlet’s father says Claudius murdered him and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Is it really his father’s spirit? Is revenge is the right decision? Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet, is on stage April 17–May 4.
Atlanta Shakespeare Company
A shipwreck, separated identical twins, mistaken identities, romance, revenge and one pair of yellow stockings…welcome to Orsino’s court and the zany world of Illyria in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Performing through April 27.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
From working-class London lads to rock ‘n’ roll icons, The Kinks exploded onto the ‘60s music scene with a raw, energetic new sound that rocked a nation and changed the industry forever. Sunny Afternoon, the story of the band’s atmospheric rise to fame is told through their own prolific catalog of hit songs, including “You Really Got Me,” “Lola,” and “All Day and All of the Night”—all performed live onstage by the actors. The North American premiere is directed by Artistic Director Edward Hall, whose UK debut production took the West End by storm. On stage through April 27.
Hymn, a new play by Lolita Chakrabarti (Hamnet, Life of Pi, and Red Velvet) begins performances April 29.
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is presenting The Tempest designed with sustainability in mind. All set pieces, costumes, and props are made from recycled and repurposed materials. After the production finishes, the entire set will be recycled!
This romantic tale, replete with magic and monsters, love and liquor, and retribution and redemption is a voyage not to be missed. Performed in the round April 11–May 4.
Gamut Theatre Group
Follow the adventures of a Kansas farm girl named Dorothy and her pet dog Toto, as they are swept away by a cyclone into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz in the Young Acting Company’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Granted a pair of enchanted silver shoes by the Good Witch of the North, Dorothy befriends a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman, and a Cowardly Lion in her quest to find her way back home. Many trials await them including battling the Wicked Witch of the West and her Winged Monkeys. One of America’s most famous and truly loved fairy tales! April 11–13.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
As You Like It, in a 60s-infused production, joins the repertory for OSF’s 90th season, beginning April 16. Other productions include: Fat Ham, a deliciously funny riff on Shakespeare’s Hamlet through June 27; an unlicensed taxi company, a disgraced son returning after a prison sentence, potent secrets, and fragile threads bind together OSF Artistic Director Tim Bond’s production of August Wilson’s Jitney, through July 20; in a sparkling production set on the Malay Peninsula, Oscar Wilde’s witty comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, reveals the absurd lengths that humans will go to in pursuit of acceptance, love, and truth, through October 25; and in Shakespeare’s famed political thriller, Julius Caesar, a bold all-female and nonbinary cast directed by OSF Associate Artistic Director Rosa Joshi illuminates ancient themes of power, loyalty, and betrayal, through October 26.
The Old Globe
A raucous and daring new musical comedy from two-time Tony and Grammy nominee Amanda Green (Mr. Saturday Night, Hands On A Hardbody, Bring It On: The Musical), three-time Emmy-nominated composer Curtis Moore (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and Emmy-winning writers Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan (“Seinfeld,” “Scrubs,” “Veep”). In Regency Girls, Elinor Benton is in a predicament: she’s pregnant, unmarried, and living in 19th-century England. What’s a young woman to do? Facing certain ruin, she gathers up her best friends and sets off on the ultimate road trip to find the one woman who might offer a chance to change her fate. This epic journey, equal parts hilarious and profound, transforms each of them as they make choices about their own futures. This world premiere production, directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes (Broadway’s Spamalot, the Globe’s Cabaret), is a riotous adventure of love, rebellion, autonomy, and self-discovery. Through May 4.
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
Short Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ideal first Shakespeare for elementary students grades 3 and up. Shakespeare’s uproarious comedy is a riotous, theatrical “rollercoaster ride” for teens and adults! Performance at 11am. Follow up with a 2pm matinee of Short Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. Two households collide in Shakespeare’s gripping masterpiece as a pair of “star-crossed lovers” navigate family, tradition, and first love. Both Short Shakespeare on stage April 19. Plus the Shakespeare “Out Loud” Book Club is discussing Troilus and Cressida on April 29 and May 6.
Southwest Shakespeare Company
Can the power of nature unlock the secrets of the human heart? Orphaned and demanding, Mary is sent to live in her estranged uncle’s mysterious house where she discovers a hidden, magical garden. Mary’s transformative journey brings her from sorrow to joy, teaching her—and the audience—about the healing power of nature and the process of self-discovery inherent in helping others. This wonderfully creative new adaptation of The Secret Garden is created and directed by James Cougar Canfield, the adapter and star of our sold-out hit Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII. Through April 13.
St. Louis Shakespeare Festival
In a special collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Nature Speaks series—an experiential opportunity integrating nature, learning, and art—author, lecturer and actor Gerit Quaely talks about her book Botanical Shakespeare: An Illustrated Compendium of All the Flowers, Fruits, Herbs, Trees, Seeds, and Grasses Cited by the World’s Greatest Playwright. April 24.
Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Folger Theatre, Gamut Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Southwest Shakespeare Company, and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival are members of the Folger’s Theater Partnership Program.
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